News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Hawaii Democrats have advanced a bill that would clear the way for individuals and insurers adversely affected by an “event attributable to climate change” to sue companies and other entities for spreading climate “misinformation.” S.B. 1166, introduced by Democratic Hawaii State Sen. Chris Lee, aims to “provide a new, specific cause of action for any … Read more
A throwaway line during a presentation on Vermont’s Climate Change agenda, how much it costs and how much money we’ll have for it in the future, stole the show this week. The Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) was giving an overview of the OVER HALF A BILLION DOLLARS a year Vermonters spend on climate change … Read more
The climate cult is coming for man’s best friend. It was only a matter of time before climate-obsessed scientists would set their sights on the greatest animal on the planet: Dogs. In a study from the Pacific Conservation Biology journal, Australian scientists claimed that dogs have “extensive and multifarious” impacts on the environment, including waterway pollution and … Read more
It’s no surprise to regular readers of Behind the Lines that the so-called “Green” agenda is really just a wealthfare scam designed to make lower-income, rural folks subsidize the high-ticket item toys of their better off neighbors (and the lucrative employment of a large and politically powerful class of otherwise useless bureaucrats and NGO operatives, … Read more
While it’s true a majority of Vermonters love the hypothetical (and fantastical) notion of our little state saving the planet from climate change by going “net zero” or some such thing, it’s also true that an even larger majority has absolutely net zero interest in paying for (or living with) the programs designed to do … Read more
Regulatory pincers, foreign and domestic. The European Union (EU) is facing off with the United States over tariffs, war with Russia, and increased regulations governing corporations doing business on the continent. Some claim globalist NGOs exert undue influence over modern Europe through the union: Pending laws that seek to impose environmental and social rules on … Read more
If you are unfamiliar with their name, you have likely heard about how they conduct themselves. Just Stop Oil throws soup on paintings (to just stop oil paintings?), gets members run over by angry motorists (when they block highways), and does what are called direct action protests. They behave like a**holes and piss people off. … Read more
In 2024, the Vermont legislature charged the State Treasurer’s Office with studying what a “Cap & Invest” program would look like as a means for meeting the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) targets for greenhouse gas reduction in the transportation sector (aka you driving your car). That report is now complete, and, just as the Public Utilities … Read more
You’ll get different answers depending on who you ask. I’m referring to the two-season jokes: winter and Construction, winter and bugs, Pumpkin Spice and everything else. I’m sure I’ve missed a few, but drought season is one of my favorite topics. I don’t like droughts, but my town has been acting like we’ve been in … Read more
Late last year, there was a big to-do about nothing in the Green Mountain State. The “nothing” is that by reducing its “emissions,” Vermont will somehow save something – not money, they are burning that like used tires. It’s okay, it’s not the legislator’s money. However, as the deadline approached, some estimates had them missing … Read more
You’d think that with everything happening in the realm of energy policy – the need to do something about the trainwreck Clean Heat Standard, the failure to meet the first Global Warming Solutions Act mandate for 2025, the lawsuit resulting from that, the projection that we’ll miss the 2030 deadline as well, the threatened cuts … Read more
Good governance utilizing democratic processes, capitalist economies, meritocracy and healthy work ethic, and the Rules of Law and Private Property (among other things) have raised billions out of abject poverty. From a world where poverty was the normal state of being for thousands of years of human existence. Yet, one of Lloyd Alter’s Carbon Upfront! … Read more
When the Biden administration announced $27 billion in environmental grants last April, it set the clock ticking on a predicament: how to get the unprecedented sums for the President’s envisioned NetZero future out the door before the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30? The task was complicated by the fact most of the money – $20 … Read more
It’s safe to say Senator Terry Williams (R-Rutland) and the Republican senators landed a blow with their parliamentary attempt to strip the Natural Resources & Energy Committee of the Clean Heat Standard repeal bill (S.68) and bring it to the floor for an up or down vote. Though all seventeen senate Democrats banded together to … Read more
It is essential to make this clear up front. Blue States are not suing “Big Oil” or introducing regressive levy on “fossil fuels” to save the planet. They want the money. Big spenders are gonna spend, and no one spends more than Democrats, but even they understand that there is a point at which – … Read more
I’ve lost track of how many years it has been since we began banging the drum for more Natural Gas (NG) or even LNG in the Northeast. The need has been obvious and, at times, severe, and even ISO New England, the grand Vizier overseeing the declining grid mix, knows that without reliable energy, everything from … Read more
When it comes to the unaffordable climate change policies being pushed on Vermonters by the Democrat majority in the State House, the Clean Heat Standard for the home heating sector has received all the attention for the past couple of years, but heat only represents about 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The … Read more
I have always expressed concern over the environmental impact of so-called green energy solutions: the carbon footprints, emissions offshoring, cost, inability to compete without taxpayer support, high cost, and the pressure they put on electricity prices. Then there’s the environmental end-of-life costs and the industry and government indifference to creating EOL green superfund sites on … Read more
One of the largest recorded underwater volcanic eruptions (Jan 15, 2022) sent record amounts of water vapor into the Earth’s atmosphere. As the single biggest driver of warming (water vapor), the Earth’s surface was expected to heat up a bit in and for a while in the following months. The problem was that most of … Read more
Vermont Democrats passed the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2020 over the veto of Governor Scott and the Republican legislative minority. That law mandates strict targets and timelines for greenhouse gas reduction set at 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. And, so … Read more